


Blue on White

by Blue (SocksandFluff)



Series: Acquisition of the Unconventional [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Dad Kraglin, Dad Yondu, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidfic, Kraglin Whump, Kraglin and Yondu are good parents???, M/M, Parent Kraglin Obfonteri, Parent Yondu Udonta, Pre-Relationship, Ravager Family, Swearing, Violence, Whump, Whump with plot, Young Peter, blood warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-05 20:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11020878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SocksandFluff/pseuds/Blue
Summary: A simple outing that should have ended with him, Kraglin and Peter getting a few simple items ends off unravelling far, far worse.  Serious injury, a hostile Ravager faction, a betrayal, and Kraglin's life balancing on the tip of Yondu's own Yaka arrow.The Eclector could lose it's first-mate and second-in-command.And Yondu?Yondu couldn't lose him.





	1. Xandarian Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn't get this little story-worm out of my mind after watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
> 
> This is an AU where Yondu and Kraglin picked Peter up WAY earlier in Peter's life - and that changes everything.
> 
> Origin Story for this AU to come later...
> 
> But for now? LET THE ANGST BEGIN.

Fuck.

This was not how Yondu expected for this day to end.

“Run faster goddammit!” Yondu shouted over the hail of fire that was raining upon them like the devil’s own personal justice.

A particularly loud blast of explosive round nearly caught the right of him, but he dodged out of the way, shrapnel flicking off of his skin and leather jacket.

“Step it the _fuck up_!” he screamed back at his only two traveling companions. “I don’t fancy us bein’ full of more holes than god gave us!”

If Yondu was being perfectly honest with himself... This was _not_ exactly how he anticipated this particular planetary excursion to end.

Sure, maybe violence was not a surprise-ending to any of Yondu’s adventures, but this was not the time nor the place.

“I’m tryin’ Captain!” Kraglin called back over the storm of shots. “But It ain’t easy with a passenger!”

A passenger...?

 _Oh wait_.

“Shit! _FUCK._ ” Yondu forgot that they had Peter with them. “Is the boy okay!?” A blast nearly took off his leg, but it missed him without so much as a burn, “Fuck. Fuck. _Fuck.”_

“He’s fine!” Kraglin called back. “Nothin’ has got to him sir! I won’t allow for it!”

Kraglin panted as he ran, dodging fire left and right; and all the while, he had the small four-year-old clinging to him, Kraglin’s own arms keeping a firm and tight hold.

“Bu- it’s hard to run wit’ him!” Kraglin continued breathlessly. “He ain’t heavy but -” to his point, he nearly tripped on a root jutting out of the snow.

Thankfully the Xandarian’s natural agility helped him to catch himself and keep up the pace.

A bullet whizzed by Yondu’s ear.

“ _Shit_.”

Why the ever-loving _fuck_ did he ever thing this was a fucking good idea!?

“Give ‘im to me!” Yondu called back, slowing his run just enough to be along side with Kraglin.

“What!?”

“Give ‘im to me! Come on!” Yondu held out his arms for the boy. “I can still fight wit’ him in my arms! You need ‘ta start returnin’ fire! I’ve had enough of this shit!”

“Cap’n?”

“ _Jus’ do it!_ ”

He thought they could out-run the assholes by now. Though Yondu would _really_ rather not kill any of another Ravager faction - he wasn’t being laid out with too many options here.

It was either die - or kill.

Thank the gods that one of Kraglin’s best qualities was following orders without argument. He tossed the Terran boy to Yondu without preamble and whipped out two firearms.

Steadying the boy into his arms, Yondu whistled sharply, his Yaka arrow flying to life, as Kraglin ran backwards firing his weapons.

This could have turned out _so_ much better if only the other factions wanted to _talk_ to him rather than their more dramatic-than-necessary policy of ‘shoot-on-sight ask questions later.’

Were the wounds of betrayal really so goddamn fresh?

Peter was silent through it all, his little head burying into Yondu’s shoulder as the Centaurian took out ravager after ravager with sharp trills and low tweets.

Kraglin incapacitated others, blowing off limbs, heads, and even sections of torsos of their pursuers.

The other faction’s men fell in droves, and there was really no turning back now.

As their opponents died, the gunfire started to ease.

Finally, a single lingering shriek, the last opposing bullet fired, and the sound of a body hitting the snow.

Yondu’s arrow flew back into it’s holster - no more targets for him to find.

Silence.

They only chanced stopping their mad run after that silence continued for more than just a few minutes.

Kraglin fell to his knees the moment they stopped, gasping for breath, coughing heavily as he tried to suck in air.

Yondu wanted to do the same, but he had tiny cargo, and instead panted for his breath, looking up and keeping a strong consoling hand on the child’s back.

Who remained resolutely silent.

Which would worry Yondu if he couldn’t feel the thumping of Peter’s heart, or feel the tightening of his little hands against the leather of his jacket.

Poor whelp was fucking terrified.

Shit.

This _really_ didn’t go to plan.

Kraglin rolled onto his back, uncaring about the snow at all, just revelling in breathing.

“W-we got them all, sir?”

Yondu looked down and eyes narrowed at the snowy nighttime forest around them. “Maybe. They are ravagers like us, after all.”

Kraglin nodded, wiping his face with a gloved hand before he hefted himself up, grabbing a gun in each hand.

“What do you reckon we do now?”

“Fuck if I know. Likely we’ll have to call someone to pick us up. Hope to god it won’t be them that what answers.”

Kraglin nodded, and flipped open a com so he could secure a line that hopefully the others wouldn’t notice or tap into.

It was shot out of his hands.

Yondu whipped around to see one of the renaming pursuers leer at them with rifle in hand. He was some huge motherfucker by the name of Taserface that had approached him some time ago about joining his crew.

Yondu had, at the time, decided to raise his standards concerning recruitment and never let the psycho in.

“How is this for ‘not being ravager enough’!?” the lunatic cried, leveling his long dangerous rifle - not at Yondu - but at who he carried. “One wrong move and I’ll blow that little shit sky-high!”

Yondu had just been about to whistle, but that comment stilled him, eyes wide.

“You a moron, boy?” he shouted back. “If they knew you killed the kid, they will kill _you!”_

“Like they’ll know it was me at all!”

“Like the fuck they _won’t.”_

“All they’ll see is that you killed the boy and that I killed _you_.”

Ravagers don’t like talking during fire-fights.

They also fought dirty.

Because as the world ‘you’ left the opposing ravagers’ mouth, there was a flurry of movement.

Taserface depressed the trigger of his weapon before Yondu could let loose a whistle fast enough.

Kraglin was faster than both of them.

“Cap’n!” he whirled in front of Yondu as Yondu let loose his Yaka arrow, shooting off a round of his own blaster with deft killer-precision.

Kraglin’s shoulder took the shot from rifle - Yondu didn’t notice.

The next second, Taserface had a blaster-shot to the neck and a Yaka arrow through the eye - collapsing to the ground in a heap.

“That’s one problem taken’ care of. What the fuck kinda name is Taserface?” Yondu spat into the snow, hoping beyond hope that this was the last of it.

“... I _said_ ,” Yondu repeated with exasperation when Kraglin didn’t even have the audacity to _chuckle_ at his statement. “What kinda name is -... Kraglin?”

Yondu couldn’t have caught Kraglin if he wanted to - he just staggered and collapsed into the snow like dead weight.

“ _Kraglin_!”

Yondu nearly dropped Peter as he fell to his knees beside his first-mate.

“Shit shit _shit_.”

Kraglin’ shoulder wasn’t the mangled mess it looked like it ought to have been, but muscle had been torn as well as skin, and Yondu could see the sticky blue of blood oozing into the snow.

“Shit!” Yondu was ripping off his scarf to tend to the wound. “You sonnofabitch! He got you! What in the blue-hell did ya get shot up for!?’

“Was gunna get you..” Kraglin wheezed, “Before you was gunna get ‘im.”

He was right.

Kraglin was _always_ right.

“Let’s get that bound up - gunna be a nasty scar.” Yondu said instead - almost proud of his first-mate.

“Sweet,” his first mate chuckled, his eyes squeezed closed with a sudden hiss of pain as his back arched.

Wait - what the fuck.

That’s when Yondu saw it. A sudden realization and a pit of guilt opened into his stomach wider than the Andromeda galaxy.

Kraglin not only blocked the shot of the weapon, deflecting it away from both Yondu and Peter but he had done so _knowing he was in the way of the Yaka arrow._

Deep, rich, _horrifying_ blue was soaking into the snow around Kraglin’s midsection.

“D-do... don’t look like th-that cap’n...” Kraglin slurred.

Yondu was shrieking into his communicator before he was aware of himself. Frantically trying to get a signal and shouting at the poor ravager at the other end to pick them up _now_ lest he’d space the entire crew.

He knew what death’s door looked like.

Kraglin was knocking pretty hard.

Even Peter, who had been stone-cold silent and terrified this whole time had grasped what had happened and had moved beyond his own terror and toward Kraglin.

His little hands were gripping onto the injured man’s sleeve.

“Stay the fuck awake, ya asshole,” Yondu shouted at him, pressing fabric down harshly against his midsection. “I can’t space ya for being a fucking idiot if yer dead!”

Kraglin just chuckled weakly, head lolling.

“Spacing dead people just ain’t the same!” Yondu cried. “Just ain’t satisfyin’! Don’t take that away from me!”

No response.

 _Fuck_.

This was not how Yondu expected for this day to end.


	2. Centaurian Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING : Some descriptions of surgery.
> 
> Thanks so much for the comments and kudos on the last chapter~
> 
> Let's see if Yondu can pull Kraglin from the dark...

Kraglin wasn’t so much as ‘knocking’ on death’s door as he was trying to _body-slam_ his way through it. Yondu was doing his damnedest to hold the door shut, but Kraglin’s body was doing it’s own damnedest to get past him.

The fact was, Kraglin was dying. He was dying fast.

Their pickup couldn’t come fast enough, and as the ship landed roughly beside him, Kraglin was already half a step through the threshold - having just gone through a violent convulsion with blood sputtering from his mouth.

Yondu just moved, hoisting up Kraglin in his arms and he scrambled onto the ship.

Thankfully Peter had half a mind to follow him because Yondu’s own mind was far, far away from the little boy.

“Get the ship in the air - _now,”_ Yondu bellowed. “You get us back to the ship as _fast_ as you can - but keep her _steady_. Any jostlin’ and I’ll use _your_ insides to fix Kraglin’s.”

A gulp and a nod was what he got in return.

But Yondu couldn’t wait for the medic.

Kraglin needed help _now_.

He put Kraglin down on the floor, crumpling up his coat behind his head. He wrenched open the cabinet that had their emergency supplies and began his work.

The blood that was seeping out of the corner of Kraglin’s mouth steadily told Yondu exactly where the problem was, and if he didn’t stop the internal bleeding now, there was nothing they would be able to do for him on the ship.

Now, Yondu was no medic by any means, he hardly dabbled in the hurts and petty ailments of his crew-members other than gruff suggestions to go ‘sleep it off’ or to go to the _actual_ medic.

But Yondu was a battle-trained warrior, and he knew how to fix someone in a pinch.

If that meant rooting around someone’s viscera to get a hold of a bleeder - he damn-well knew how to do it.

Kraglin’s shirt was cut roughly open, and Yondu spared enough time to disinfect his hands with a disgusting pungent green gel.

He didn’t hesitate when he picked up the impossibly-sharp knife. Yondu just got to work.

“Damn,” Yondu growled to the unconscious man, “I never thought I’d get to know you this personal like.”

His fingers slipped wetly as he searched for the cause of the intense bleeding.

“I want to know my men inside an’ out n’all, but this is a bit fuckin’ much,” he continued.

Yondu haphazardly swiped at his sweating forehead with his forearm, smearing it with green of the gel and the blue of Kraglin’s blood.

“Fuck. Where is it at?”

Kraglin’s pulse was slowing by the second.

“ _Fuck_.”

The ship rocked and Yondu had to press his hand into Kraglin’s chest to keep him from moving.

Yondu screamed at the pilot, “ _I said keep ‘er steady you fucking idiot -!_ ”

Then he saw it.

The bleeder.

There.

“Yes!” he cried. “Yes! _Found the fucker_.” He pinched the bleeding artery with two fingers while grabbing for the kit to his right. He snatched up the cauterization tool and it lit to life.

This better be it.

Yondu never did like the smell of cooking flesh.

Meat? That was fine - but Xandarian? Not okay. Something offset his stomach every time he had to smell a sentient-being’s flesh turned to charcoal or ash. There was something disturbing about it.

Right now? Perhaps it was the sweetest thing he could imagine because when he pulled the tool away and un-pinched his fingers with bated breath...

... The bleeding had stopped.

Yondu let out a whoop of triumph.

Though Kraglin was hardly out of danger, Yondu felt his own anxiety and tension ease by an order of magnitude.

“Put on music,” he found himself saying.

“Sir?” the pilot stammered.

“I said _put on some music -_ ” he repeated instead of correcting himself. Why the hell not? They needed something lighter than this. He continued, “- put on some of that ‘Earth’ music. You know - the one that Kraglin’ has taken a real likin’ to lately.”

The ravager crewman nodded, then music flooded the space.

Yondu chuckled slightly when he heard which song had been arbitrarily picked. It was one that he - not so long ago - caught Kraglin and Peter dancing to.

Not that Peter was dancing to it, as so much, but rather, Kraglin had taken Peter’s hands and had the boy’s feet on-top of his own boots as the doofus he called a first-mate ‘danced’ with Peter.

Yondu had ducked behind a corner before Kraglin noticed him; because something about the image of his first officer poorly singing a Terran song to the small giggling child as he ‘danced’ with him was too pure for even him to stop.

He had pretended to not see anything and continued on with his day.

Though he was pretty sure that Kraglin _had_ noticed him as he left.

Yondu worked hard through the song, setting up a temporary sort of IV to get blood back into him.

Not Xandarian blood - they didn’t have blood storage on the pickup ship - but they had discovered a while back that Kraglin’s blood worked for Yondu in a pinch.

So the same should work in reverse.

He owed him, anyhow.

Once the line was strung between them, Yondu finished what he was doing. He filled the cavity with a glowing blue ooze that would kill any bacteria and keep Kraglin’s insides clean.

He bound up his middle and left the rest for the on-ship medic to fix.

He wasn’t any surgeon, after-all, and Kraglin would be closed up with nary a scar once this was all done with.

“Kraglin?” Yondu offered, not that he was expecting a response.

His first mate didn’t look so close to the pull of death anymore. Horrendously pale, yes, but perhaps not knocking furiously anymore.

The blood that flowed from him to the other seemed to bolster the frail crewman by bounds, and Yondu didn’t feel as so terrified that he’d be leaving the crew roster any time soon.

The ship rocked again as they docked with the Eclector.

Yondu gathered up Kraglin in his arms once more, and it was only then that he noticed Peter had been sitting beside them all the while, holding tightly onto Kraglin’s sleeve.

Not something a kid as small as him ought to have seen, but - a lesson he would certainly have to learn at some point.

There was nothing he could do now - Yondu hadn’t the time nor the place of mind to shelter the boy.

“C’mon brat. Let’s get Krags home,” he offered instead.

Peter quietly nodded.

 

* * *

 

The surgery to fix Kraglin took over four hours.

Four hours of Yondu pacing outside the medic bay, tormenting crew members, and throwing a hissy-fit or two as he blamed everybody and their bloody coat that they were at fault for the tremendous disaster.

All the while, Peter was on his coat-tails, following after him quietly as he erratically paced the length of the Eclector.

Yondu didn’t pay any mind to the little duckling pattering after him, the kid had been to hell and back, and if he somehow thought his furious blue-ass was some sort of comfort then, well, _more power to him_.

It was at the point when he sat down on the bench outside the medical bay that his attention turned more to Peter.

He ought to, anyhow, seeing how young the whelp was.

“Sorry ‘bout all of this, kid,” he muttered. “None of this should’a happened.”

Peter hummed, little face glum and serious for someone so small as him.

“C’mere, mite,” Yondu gestured, knowing that Peter wanted closeness above all else right now.

Peter clambered into Yondu’s lap, resting his head against his chest, saying not much of anything at all. He got awful quiet like this, Peter, whenever he was scared.

It was hard for the kid to speak as it was - terribly hard to learn a language when so many where being thrown around, and he was too young for a translator yet. So it was even _harder_ for him to find the words under stress.

“Kraglin is gunna be fine, Imma kick his ass if he ain’t,” Yondu tried to assure. It was his first-mate that was better at this coddling business. “I’ll kick his ass straight to the edges of the galaxy if I hafta.”

Peter hummed again, his voice a slight whine as he curled into Yondu.

Yondu sighed.

“He’ll be back on his feet before you know it, and you’ll be dancin’ to that weird song about oceans and octilloputts or whatever-you call ‘em. You know, the one with those singers what Kraglin likes.” Yondu was just rambling, but Peter’s shoulders relaxes more and more as he did so. “Beetnels. Bezuls. Bejulls.”

“... Beatles,” Peter supplied weakly, voice hoarse.

“...Right. Whatever. Anyway-” Yondu continued, ignoring the fact his hand was rubbing a comforting circle on Peter’s back. “What I’m _tryin_ ’ to say, is that Kraglin will be up an’ kickin’ ass before you know it.”

“Cap’n?” the gruff voice of the medic called behind him.

Yondu’s head whipped around so fast he cricked it.

“What?” Yondu demanded, and he braced Peter against him, feeling the tiny fists of his charge ball into his shirt with anxiety. He ignored the small taught trill of Centaurian he had taught the boy to mean Kraglin’s name.

One of the few languages Peter had no trouble with when finding he couldn’t speak.

The medic just gestured to the door. “You can see him.”

“I what?”

“You can see him. The fucker is awake - whatever is in your blood that has got him up, or maybe he’s a hardy asshole, but he’s awake and askin’ for you - and the mite,” he nodded at Peter.

Yondu never dashed into the medical bay faster.


	3. Synthetic Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all:  
> CHECK OUT THIS FANART I GOT:  
> [CLICK HERE IT'S GORGEOUS](https://ilovekragdu.tumblr.com/image/161217951060)  
> Thank you so much iraya!
> 
> Second of all:  
> Thanks for all the comments <3

Yondu almost skid to a halt at Kraglin’s bedside - but had the place of mind to slow his steps for Peter’s sake who had been yanked up into his arms the _second_ he had heard that Kraglin was awake and had asked for them.

“You asshole,” was the first thing Yondu blurted. “You fucking asshole! What do you think yer doin’? Tryin’ to die like that! You have any idea what kinda pain in the ass you’ve been! I should’a left you out in the snow where you were laid out! Would’a cost me less trouble!”

Kraglin just smiled in his lopsided way, looking rather pale and like he had been run over by a m-class ship.

... Or run through by a Yaka Arrow.

“Thanks cap’n,” Kraglin said tiredly, his voice as pale as his face was. “Neither of you was got?”

“Nah,” Yondu sat down on a chair he pulled over with his foot, Peter still in his hold, but glad to be back in his lap rather than grappled like some package. “Both of us are fine.”

“Tha’s good...”

Yondu didn’t like seeing Kraglin hooked up to so many various things. Monitors, read-outs, and various scanners. He spotted a IV bag full of the non-descriptive light-blue blood-replacement that every ship had on board if they were smart enough.

Certainly wasn’t the same deep blue of Xandarian blood or the rich indigo-blue that was his own. It made Kraglin seem paler, despite what good it was doing for him.

Peter was leaning forward in his lap now, reaching his hands out toward Kraglin’s. Yondu pulled him back. “Careful.”

“Jus’ let him,” his first mate said. “He can’t do me much more harm.”

This was true.

Yondu pulled Peter up from under his arms and swung him onto the bed, sitting him down by Kraglin’s good side.

“No wrigglin’, or Imma eat chu,” Yondu threatened.

Peter nodded solemnly as he laid down next to Kraglin.

“... Aw,” Yondu heard Kraglin say as he used his good arm to tuck Peter in close to him.

Some would say it was soft to allow Kraglin to have Peter close to him like that - maybe he would have said it himself some time ago.

But before the exile he didn’t give any shits about the code, or keeping up the Ravager name. He had his own grandiose ideas of what made a man ‘strong’ back then.

Of what was ‘soft’ and what needed to be ‘stamped out’.

Of what sorts of people he wanted to associate with.

People like Taserface.

But... This wasn’t soft.

This was taking care of his own.

Something he learned he ought to have done a long time ago.

And something that a lot of lives had to been lost before he had realized it that one fateful day when he had picked up a newborn from his dead mother...

“Little shit is too cute for his own goddamn good,” Yondu said with a smirk.

“Yeah. S’our fault though,” Kraglin tiredly reasoned. He paused, eyebrows furrowing before turning his attention back to Yondu, “What happened, cap’n? I barely remember anything.”

“You remember us bein’ at that big ol’ stupid trade fair?”

Kraglin nodded.

“An’ remember when we saw another Ravager faction that what started to chase us the moment they saw us?”

“They thought Peter was another kid...”

“Righ’ - well - they kept chasin’ us, and we ended up in a fire-fight as we ran. You remember that?”

Kraglin paused, but slowly nodded. “I think I do. There was one big ugly brute -”

“Taserface! He tried to threaten the kid, and tried to shoot the both of us. You were faster than him, though, got in in the neck - but not before you got in the way of his bullet _and_ my Yaka arrow,” Yondu ended in a growl.

Honestly he truly wasn’t angry at Kraglin for such a move, but he couldn’t help the anger he felt toward the man for such a move.

Kraglin paled a little.

“Thas’ what makes you a moron - you fuckin’ idiot. My arrow is good for tearin’ up insides! You’re lucky you ain’t dead.” Yondu sighed. “But it’s not like we ain’t grateful for what you did though. Jus’ don’t do it again.”

Kraglin nodded rapidly.

A silence fell between them.

A little awkward.

A little relieved.

A little pleasant.

But mostly silent.

Peter - who hadn’t slept at all since the incident - was fast asleep where he was, buried into Kraglin’s side one hand gripping tightly into the sheets.

Kraglin started to snicker.

Yondu looked up from where he was inspecting his fingers idly. “What?”

“... Did’ja say his name was _Taserface_?”

Yondu’s smile showed every tooth.

Their uproarious laughter rang down the halls from the medical bay.

 

* * *

 

Xandarians healed well.

Not quickly - they healed slower than other races - but when they healed, they healed _well_. Aside from scarring, they were just as hardy - if not more - than they were before the injury in the first place.

But the point was - they healed slowly.

Which was why, despite the fact that Kraglin _insisted_ he was better, Yondu was making every attempt to shout his first officer off of the bridge.

“Get the fuck back to bed!”

“I told you I’m fine.”

The other ravagers watched their exchange back and forth like some sort of demented ball-game.

“It’s only been a _week_!”

“I’m just fine! I can walk, and my stitches are stayin’ put!”

“I was elbow-deep in your guts, you can’t be up on the bridge yet!” Yondu slammed his fist on a console, growling loudly.

The other ravagers backed up, fearing that Yondu’s Yaka arrow was soon going to make an appearance.

“I am _fine_ ,” Kraglin insisted. “I ain’t runnin’ around in a fire-fight. I’m just gunna sit at a console.”

Yondu glowered.

Kraglin continued, both his hands held up before him in a placating gesture. “I won’t do anything more than that. I promise.”

Yondu glared, his eyes narrowing. “You better bet your hide that you won’t - or Imma kill you m’self.”

“Yes cap’n.”

Kraglin was one stubborn Xandarian.

He ought to have been laid up for another week or _more -_ not staggering as he was to the bridge insisting that he get back to work.

“Sit yer ass down,” Yondu finally commanded.

“Yes cap’n.” Kraglin sat.

Yondu ran a hand over his face before sat down heavily in his own chair.

“If I get one peep of pain outta you, then you are back in your quarters for a _week_ -”

“But cap’n-”

“Is. That. _Clear_.”

Kraglin paused, the nodded. “Yessir.”

“Good.”

Yondu drummed his fingers on his console angrily, letting his seethe over the idiocy of his stubborn first mate wash over him and mingle with the relief he felt upon seeing his crewman back on his feet.

It was a strange moddled mess of feelings.

Yondu hated it.

He was about to open his mouth to give Kraglin some boring console-task to do to punish him when the Eclector gave a violent jerk causing all the crewmen to grab a hold of whatever was nearest to them so they didn’t go crashing to the floor.

Yondu had to grip his console, and one of his trinkets lined across it fell and smashed on the floor.

“What the _fuck was that!?”_ he snarled, standing up once the ship stopped rocking.

It was a bit too soon, because the ship rocked again violently, and a deep echoing boom went through the hull.

“We’re being shot at,” one man said. “It’s those other Ravagers from before, sir.”

Yondu whirled on the crewman. “Show me.”

The main-screen flickered to life, and the cameras tracked and locked onto the other Ravager ship.

It wasn’t a mother-ship - so clearly they didn’t want to risk their whole faction - but it was much larger than the typical m-class.

“Get a line through! I want to speak to them!”

Shots were fired toward them again, and Yondu gripped the side of the wall to keep steady.

“Don’t wanna speak to us,” it was Kraglin who spoke. “Jus’ said they want you to hand over the kid.”

“What!?”

“Jus’ that.”

“Tell them to fuck off!”

Kraglin typed the message, and sent it.

This earned them two more shots their way, but thankfully his own crewmen finally got their shit together, and the ship veered to the side to escape the blows.

“Tell them to fuck off again - or they are gunna get the full might of our ship. No,” Yondu raised his hand. “Wait.”

“Sir?”

“Ask them what they want with th’ kid. Also ask them about their shitty policy of ‘shoot first ask questions later’.”

The message was sent, and they waited.

No shots fired.

Finally Kraglin spoke.

“Said that they is gonna right the wrong you made, sir. Said they is gonna be a respected new faction of the Ravagers to replace yours.”

Yondu showed teeth, but he wasn’t smiling. He flipped back his coat in a comforting gesture of showing his arrow, and clicked his tongue.

“So we gots ourselves a buncha rogue Ravagers tryin’ to usurp their place, hm?”

Bloody typical. Explained Taserface.

Yondu turned to his crew, “Well we might be exiled - but remember boys - _we’re_ gunna fix that. We uphold the code no matter _what_.”

“Yessir!” his men cried, and he heard the thumps against their chests of the Ravager salute.

“Let us teach these fuckers a lesson in them tryin’ to do their own kinda in-house justice without the request of nobody.”

“Yes _sir_ ,” Kraglin said, smirking, fingers already dancing across the keyboards - already knowing exactly what Yondu wanted to do.

But - Ravagers liked to fight dirty.

They always did.

Always will.

The ship _jerked_ violently this time, sending Yondu to the floor and several of his men careening into their consoles.

A second ship.

“ _We ain’t stupid - Yondu Udonta,”_ a voice growled through the com. Finally the fuckers wanted to talk.

Kraglin was wheezing from where he lay on the floor, curling into himself with his arms wrapped around his middle.

“You sonnofa-” Yondu hissed, pushing himself to his knees. “What kinda tech did you get your hands on you basta-”

The ship rocked violently again. The force causing them all to slam into the opposing walls.

“ _\- We suggest you surrender.”_

Yondo gasped, surprised, and he looked over to Kraglin who had been caught by the console. He was shaking.

No no no.

“ _Yondu. We’ll give you five seconds.”_

Yondu scrambled to his feet, staggering toward his console - and to Kraglin.

“ _Five -”_

His first-mate was white-faced and holding his sides. The stitches had broken.

“ _\- Four -”_

“Don’t do it sir -”

“ _\- Three -”_

“Shut up.”

“Cap’n... please...”

“ _\- Two -”_

Yondu slammed his hand on the console to answer the com, sliding to his knees next to his fallen crew-member. “We surrender. Hold your goddamn fire!”

The countdown stopped.

“S-sir...”

“Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens...
> 
> ... Poor Kraglin.


	4. Enemy Blood

“Cap’n,” Kraglin wheezed. “You can’t-... Peter- you can’t-”

“Shutup,” Yondu said, pressing his hand into Kraglin’s back. “We need time for a plan - and I don’t wanna figure out what other fire-power they have. Makes it hard to think.”

Kraglin looked unconvinced as he breathed heavily where he lay on the floor.

“Tullk,” Yondu snapped.

“Yessir!”

“I want you to go clean the vents,” he said, cleanly.

Though he wasn’t looking at the other, he could feel the confusion wafting off of him in waves. “Sir...?”

“I _said_. Go. Clean. The. Vents. Are your ears broken? Or do you need a new translator in your skull?” Yondu leveled a glare with him, full of meaning. “I need you to go clean the damn vents. Take whatever tools you need. However small. I don’t want you to leave them vents after I think you’ve done a _thorough job cleanin’ them._ ”

Realization dawned on Tullk’s face. “Yessir. Right sir.”

“Good.”

Tullk turned to leave with a thump of his chest.

“Oh and Tullk?”

Tullk froze in his steps at the icy tone.

“... If anythin’ bad happens whilst in those vents that needs... cleanin’ up? Or fixin’? I will be sure that you will be lost in them vents _forever_... If you catch my drift.”

Tullk gulped and walked faster.

There. That was the best he could do on short notice.

There was no way in hell that Yondu was actually surrendering, and it was painfully obvious to the rogue faction that his ‘surrender’ was far too easy. They were going to be looking for moves or tricks of any kind.

So that’s why, right after they ‘surrendered’, Yondu ordered all of his crew-members to _keep doing their jobs_ and to not interfere.

Hopefully that meant Tullk could quickly hide Peter in the vent system with the other cleaning crew, and mask where he was hidden by how many people were there.

Everything should look ‘business as normal’.

It didn’t take long for the captain of the rival rogue faction to enter onto the bridge, surrounded by two heavily-armed guards.

Yondu stood away from the console he finished typing the last of his plan’s commands into. He stepped in front of Kraglin, and waved his hand for his own crew to lower their weapons.

“Well well. Yondu Udonta, we meet.”

Yondu snarled. “Pleasure.”

“I don’t want to deal with idle talk though...” the other captain drawled. “Give us the kid. Give up yourself. Give up your ship, your crew, and give up on being considered a Ravager.”

“Thas’ all? Sure you don’ want my virginity too?” Yondu put his hands idly in his pocket like he was conversing with a friendly stranger. “Jus’ a shame I lost that years ago.”

That earned from the Eclector’s crew-members.

The opposing leader looked _far_ less amused. “This isn’t a laughing matter.”

“Sure it is,” Yondu continued, stepping closer to the man casually, picking up one of the figures that had stayed on his console. He tossed it in the air. “You think you’ve won. That’s hilarious,” Yondu grinned.

“We have your ship at our _mercy_.” The other captain stated. “You live because I _let it be so_.”

Yondu rolled his eyes. “Sure you do. But see - you ain’t abou’ta shoot this ship while your sorry ass is on it. So I figure I can _say what I like_.”

Just like that, the other was inches from his face, snarling. “Where is the child?”

Yondu was unmoved. “What’s it to you?”

“ _Udonta_.”

“Nice you know my name. Don’t care to learn yours though. You can keep that to yourself,” Yondu grinned.

He got the butt of the other captain’s rifle across the jaw for that.

Yondu spat indigo, but just grinned and continued to look unperterbed. “Ooh. Touchy. Touchy.”

“You will tell me where the child is,” the other bared pointed teeth, “- or I’ll -”

“You’ll _what_ , exactly?” Yondu straightened, his replacement crest flaring red slightly in anger. “Or you’ll _what_. Destroy this ship? Then the kid is dead. Or you’ll kill a crewmember o’ mine? That’ll just seal my lips tighter. Or you’ll kill _me_? That’s the stupidest of all ‘cause if I’m dead you ain’t _never_ gunna find ‘im.”

The opposing leader’s face was red in fury, nostrils white, hands shaking.

“The thing is, you massive fucking idiot,” Yondu continued to say, wiping his mouth of his blood. “Is that you didn’t exactly think this _through_ did’ja? You had a stupid idea in your head, and decided to just go and do it. Did’ja plan this?”

“You will be _silent-!_ ”

“Oh no I won’t. This is Ravager 101, you best be listenin’ because I am only gunna say this once. You wanna be one so badly, don’t cha? Now. You hav’ta _plan_. You also don’t go doin’ stupid shit that gets what a dozen or more men killed!”

“Nobody has died!”

“Not today. But don’t think I don’t know it was you down on that planet a week ago. How many died? Twenty? More? I ferget to count after the first ten...”

The leader snarled. “ _You_ were the one that killed them!”

“You,” Yondu jammed his finger in his chest. “Were the one that put them in that damn position in the first place. Now you are walkin’ them into another death-trap because you got too big for your britches and thought you could shove your way inn’a something you know nothin’ about.”

The other backed up.

Yondu kept going, stepping forward, the other walking backwards in fear despite Yondu having not so much as reached for his own weapon.

“You have done mistake. After mistake. After mistake. Lemme tell you somethin’. You don’t _git_ to wear these flames,” he tore off the roughly-attached flames from the other ‘captain’s’ jacket. “By bein’ a fuckin’ moron. By gettin’ yer men killed. By being selfish.”

“Ravagers don’t _care_ about those bloody thi-” Yondu caught off the other’s argument with a violent back-handed slap.

“You ain’t a Ravager then.”

“Y-you!” a gun was leveled at Yondu’s head.

“Horuz,” he suddenly said, casually, looking over at his other officer. “... Are we still in broadband communication wit’ those other ships?”

“... Yessir.”

The other leader spluttered. “What?”

“They heard all’o that?”

“Yessir.”

“Still listenin’?”

“I believe so, sir, they haven’t cut us off.”

Yondu grinned more maliciously. “Good. See. Lemme teach you one last thing. The greatest thing that any Ravager captain can have.”

The other’s hands trembled, holding his gun still unsteadily at Yondu’s temple.

“Respect,” Yondu simply stated. “An’ respect can get you a lotta things. It goes both ways, see. You gotta have a crew’s respect, but you also gotta _respect your crew_.”

“You don’t have my respect,” the other leader growled, but fear was tainting every note.

“The feelin’s mutual.”

The leader’s gun finally jerked, trigger depressing.

He was on the floor before the gun could fire - two massive holes burned into him.

One shot had been fired by Kraglin who had crawled on the floor and pulled out his own blaster. The other-?

\- One of the very-same guards that had come aboard the ship was shaking as he realized what he had done.

Yondu bit his lower lip and smirked in grand amusement, he just clapped him on the shoulder heartily.

“Alright! The rest of you still listenin’ out there?” he called out to the other ships on the broad-band connection. “Good. The rest of you have a choice. You join us, or you get the fuck outta here. I don’t care which you choose, but you better make that choice awful quickly ‘cause I rise easily to temper.”

He turned to the two guards. “If you know what’s best for ye, you swear fealty now.”

There was no argument as both guns dropped and they thumped their chests.

“Good.”

He stomped over to where Kraglin was on the floor, and he grabbed him under one arm and hoisted him up onto his feet, slinging one arm over his shoulder.

“The rest of you lot, get those two ships docked, I want _every single member_ of their skeleton crew - I doubt they have many people left - to be subject to intense scrutiny. Keep them locked up till they pass every test I can throw at ‘em.”

Yondu leveled a look at that one guard. “Cept this one. I like this one.”

He brushed past them, supporting a faltering Kraglin, hand pulling him tightly to his side.

“Sir! Tullk?”

Yondu paused. “... Tullk stays where he is cleanin’ them vents until I say otherwise.”

“Yessir.”

 

* * *

 

“C’mon, stay steady...” Yondu muttered as he walked with Kraglin to the med-bay.

Kraglin gasped as he walked, stumbling half-into Yondu with his hand gripping tightly into his jacket front, there was obvious blue running down his front.

“S-sorry,” he said when he stumbled for the umpteenth time.

Yondu caught him before he felt completely flat on the floor.

“Gotta do everythin’ myself.” He hoisted Kraglin up from behind his knees and back and into his arms.

“Cap’n!”

“Shut it. You can’t walk anymore. I ain’t draggin’ you.”

Yondu continued to walk, steps a bit faster now because now that he had his first-mate pressed against his chest, he wasn’t liking the violent heat he was feeling radiating from the thinner man.

“That was _amazin’_ ,” Kraglin half-slurred. “You took him down with jus’ words.”

Yondu snuffed air. “You took ‘im down with a bullet.”

Kraglin chuckled. “I mean before that, ya idiot.”

“Watch it. Only I can call people idiots.” Yondu threatened without heat.

He stepped up his pace more, when he noticed the grip around Kraglin’s knees was slick.

They had one battle.

But they weren’t out of the dark yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right. Yondu isn't captain for _no damn reason_ after all. He can take down an entire rogue faction with just _words_. He's that badass.
> 
> ... Now he just has to worry about Kraglin...


	5. Blood of the Universe

Tullk wasn’t allowed to come back from ‘cleaning the vents’ for some time after they had docked their two new ships and new possible crew members.

Yondu had expressly ordered that the ships be stripped down to bare-bones and searched thoroughly, and that every member of the rogue factions’ crew to also be stripped of anything important and locked away until further notice.

He had every intention on taking on anybody who was skilled enough and wanted to stay - but he also wasn’t stupid, and wasn’t about to immediately let them roam the ship freely right out of the gate.

Yondu needed to make them sweat a little - realize who was in charge and who they had to answer to if they fucked up.

They were going to get a taste of what a _real_ captain was.

It was the middle of the night-shift when Tullk was finally allowed to bring Peter out of the vents and to Yondu; who was in the med-bay with Kraglin.

He had only just arrived there himself, having to leave Kraglin in order to oversee everything that was happening on his ship. There was no first-mate to aid him, and Horuz was good - but he was no Kraglin when it came to organizing these things.

So it all landed on Yondu’s shoulders.

He had only just sat himself down on the chair next to Kraglin’s bed when a familiar chirp drew his attention.

He turned his head to see Tullk holding Peter awkwardly from under the arms, and the small four-year-old Terran wiggling to be let go by the other Ravager.

“Here ‘e is, cap’n. I kept ‘im fed and watered, and ‘e was real good-like the whole time. Not a peep.”

“L’ggo...” Peter wriggled more, and Tullk acquiesced, putting Peter down on the floor.

Peter dashed over to Yondu.

He wasn’t one for showing affection to Peter when other crew members were around. He had to keep an image after all. Though at the same time it was no bloody secret that Yondu had practically adopted the whelp.

Yondu allowed Peter to cling to his arm.

“Go and sleep Tullk,” Yondu ordered, turning his attention away from him.

“Yessir.”

The other Ravager left quickly, happy to free of duty.

“Okay, c’mon kid,” he hoisted Peter up and into his lap.

Peter frowned when he saw Kraglin laying in the bed before them, horribly pale and piled in sheets. His small eyebrows furrowed in further confusion when he saw an IV attached to his arm.

Peter turned and looked up at Yondu. “Kraglin?” he asked, simply.

“Yeah kid, I know. He’s back in here,” Yondu replied tiredly.

“Why?” Peter asked, his voice tensing, and Yondu squeezed him slightly in assurance. “Hurt again?”

“No - ain’t nothing like that. Same hurt. Jus’ not better yet.”

Peter frowned more, and leaned towards Kraglin’s bed and began to pat the asleep man’s arm gently in what looked like an attempt at comfort.

Yondu pulled him back with a chuckle. “No you is gunna wake him -”

“-... Peter?”

“... Aw damnit, see?”

Kraglin blinked blearily, and made an effort to sit up but hissed and fell back into the bed.

Yondu admonished him. “Stay lying down you idjit.”

Kraglin swallowed heavily and turned his head to look at Yondu and Peter.

“What’er you doin’ here?” he asked, his voice a kind of raspy and tired that Yondu didn’t like to hear at all. He was supposed to be on the _mend_ , not sound like he had just had major surgery again.

“Makin’ sure your sorry ass was stayin’ in bed this time,” Yondu explained. “Maybe you oughta listen to me more - would do ya some more good.”

“I would have been thrown into a wall no matter where I was,” Kraglin easily replied. “Ain’t nothing for it.”

Yondu frowned. He knew that was true, but that didn’t mean it was a good excuse for Kraglin having tried to come back onto duty early.

“B’sides,” Kraglin continued, voice as bleary as he looked, “Who would’ve shot that rogue captain for you...?”

Yondu felt something inside of him twist, and he cleared his throat. “One of his guards did a pretty fine job ‘o that.”

“Yeah,” Kraglin said tiredly, “But we didn’t know that was gunna happen.”

They didn’t.

Yondu _knew_ that most of his damn confidence in that moment was because he knew - despite how injured the man was - that Kraglin had his damn back.

They sat in silence for a moment as Kraglin breathed, still looking all the while like he had just been pulled through another surgery.

He was pale, and a little translucent looking, sweat beading down his forehead as obvious heat consumed him.

“Where is the damned medic?” Yondu grumbled.  "You don't look good."

“M’fine captain. Jus’ fever.” Kraglin dismissed as easily as someone would a papercut. “You should get to bed, you look tired.”

Yondu barked a laugh. “ _I_ look tired? You look like you hadn’t slept in a solid week. _You_ look like you was just asked to clean the entire Eclector before you were allowed to take a kip.”

\- he actually looked like he took a Yaka arrow to the stomach a week ago an was still recovering...

Peter piped up before familiar guilt sprang up, causing both men to jump because they forgot he was settled into Yondu’s lap. “I helped cleaned the vents!” he blurted.

Kraglin smiled lopsidedly. “Didja now? An’ how was that?”

Peter babbled some word he was taught that must have meant ‘awesome’, and continued, “Tullk showed me how. It was _gross,”_ he emphasized, the ‘r’ rolling more like a ‘w’ when he spoke.

“S’always gross,” Yondu confirmed.

“It was _cool_.”

“You find the weirdest shit cool, Peter.”

Peter giggled a little. “Some of it was green, an’ brown, an’ an’ some of it was _blue_.”

“Really now?” Kraglin asked, voice soft.

Yondu smiled a little. Something about watching Kraglin’s expression soften when he talked to Peter, and that genuine sort of interest he had when the boy spoke made that more pleasant feeling in his chest twist again.

It was nice to see.

“Uh huh,” Peter continued. “Some of it was all sticky an’ an’, some of it smelled gross.”

“I told’ja it’s gross,” Yondu offered. “I hate doin’ them vents.”

“I could do it!” Peter offered brightly. “I found somethin’ in there too an-”

Yondu groaned. “Oh tell me you didn’ _keep_ whatever it was-”

“Uh huh!” Peter protested, yanking it out of his pocket. “Tullk made me wash though. An’ I washed it too! Here!”

He leaned forward in Yondu’s grip and plopped it onto Kraglin’s bed.

Kraglin picked it up, and held it for inspection against the light.

“What is it?”

It was glittery and green, and sort of reminded Yondu of sea-glass laced with streaks of gold filament.

“Give it here,” Yondu opened his hand, and Kraglin dropped the ‘stone’ into it.

He peered at it too.

“Isn’t it pretty?” Peter said, using another word from some other language to express thuis.

“I don’t know what it is. I think it might be a bit o space glass that got caught up in the vents. Maybe a bit o’ meteorite.”

Peter took it back in awe. “Space glass?”

“Yeah. Happens sometimes. Sure is real pretty.  Sometimes they call it the blood 'o the universe...” He wasn’t about to go into a scientific-explanation to a four-year-old about a subject he hardly knew anything about.

Peter nodded, turning it over in his tiny hands seriously before he reached out toward Kraglin again holding it out for him again.

“For you!"

Kraglin looked bewildered. “For me?”

“Make you feel better!”

Yondu pursed his lips. Kid was too damned fucking cute for his own good. He ought to sit him on his console along with his other trinkets.

Kraglin looked almost misty-eyed at the gesture. “Aw - thanks Pete.” He gingerly took the shiny emerald-like stone.

Yondu had enough - this was too adorable.

He stood up suddenly, hooking Peter under one of his arms like he was luggage.

“Hey!”

“Okay, brat, we gotta leave Kraglin to rest, okay?”

Peter whined. “Aww but -”

“Ain’t no buts about it. Kraglin has gotta rest so he can get better quick-like. Now that he got that pretty stone ‘o yours, he should be better in no time, but he’s gotta sleep for that.”

Kraglin was chuckling.

“Aww... okay...”

“He’ll still be there in th’ mornin’” Yondu then leveled a non-heated glare at Kraglin. “Because if he ‘ain’t here in th’ mornin, he ain’t gunna like the consequences.”

Kraglin gave a tired salute. “Yessir.”

“Good.”

He didn’t wait to bid goodbyes or any other mushy-like sentiments, though Peter shouted at Kraglin 'goodnight' and he heard his first-mate call back the same sentiment as Yondu just strode out of the med-bay with Peter under one of is arms.

Peter yawned - stretching.

"Time for bed."  Yondu adjusted Peter's under-arm hold slightly. "You can see more of him in th' mornin'."

"Okay..."

 

* * *

 

Yondu was awoken by the beeping of someone having the fucking _audacity_ to try to contact him.

He groaned from where he lay shirtless in his pile of bed-furs, and his hand sloppily made it’s way out of the bundle of warmth to slam onto the bedside console to answer the continuous call.

Oh he had tried to ignore it - hoping they’d catch the drift; but the caller _insisted_.

“It better be fuckin’ good,” he growled into his pillow, voice muffled but clear of serious intent.

“ _Cap’n. There’s a problem.”_

“Spit it out Horuz. I am fucking exhausted as shit an’ have no patience to spare.”

What time was it, anyhow?

“ _It’s Kraglin.”_

That woke Yondu up like a bucket of water over his head. He pushed himself upright, furs sliding off of him.

“What?” he barked. “What about ‘im?”

“ _Jus’ got the call from the med-bay. He’s...”_ Horuz sounded stressed, “ _He’s gettin’ worse by the minute, cap’n - they’re asking for you. Say you need... to... to make a decision.”_

Yondu’s blood ran cold.

“Shit.”

He was out of bed and yanking on any shirt he could get his hands on as he spoke. “You tell them I’m on my way - an’ if they let ‘im die before I get there, then I am spacin’ every last one o’ them. You got that?”

“ _Yessir.”_

“That includes you,” he snarled.

“ _... yessir.”_

The commlink ended.

Yondu left his quarters...

... and ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... the med-bay isn't exactly a top-of-the-line Nova Corps hospital... now is it???
> 
> ... Dun dun dun...


	6. Traitor's Blood

Yondu slammed the door to the med-bay open.

“Were is he?” he demanded, crossing the floor in just a few strides.

“Sir,” the medical assistant - a young recently acquired Ravager that hadn’t quite been hardened yet - spoke “He -”

Yondu shoved him out of the way, to get to Kraglin’s bedside.

What Yondu saw made him both see red and feel his stomach try to turn inside out in fear.

Kraglin was laying on his side, gasping for air, his breath shallow and pained. He was all the wrong colour - like the blue of his blood had affected the pinkness of his flesh, causing him to be this deathly shade of grey.

Kraglin’s arms were wrapped around his middle, and deep circles ringed around his eyes in such bruised hues that he looked like someone had sucker-punched him twice in the face.

The monitor that was hooked up to him told an equally grim tale, and Yondu didn’t need to know much about Xandarian biology to know that Kraglin’s heart was failing - and failing fast.

“Kraglin,” Yondu said, voice just above a bare whisper.

“Captain,” the young medic tried, “-we think he’s not-”

Yondu _whirled_ on the assistant grabbing him by the jaw and yanking him toward himself.

Yondu snarled, fingers digging into cheeks. “What the fuck have you idiots been doin’ all this time!? Why is he like this!?”

“I-infection captain... It’s settled in-”

Yondu _squeezed,_ reveling in the pained yelp he got in return. “Infection? I didn’ hear about no infection before. Was told that he jus’ needed to recover.”

“The doc didn’t - didn’t notice it before!” the young Ravager squealed. “He didn’t! I swear!”

Yondu’s lip curled, and he thrust the young Ravager away from himself in disgust, sending him tumbling to the floor and onto his back.

“Fucking useless.”

Yondu knelt beside the bed, and took up one of Kraglin’s clammy hands.

“Kraglin. Hey. Kraglin.”

Kraglin’s eyes were half-lidded, but there was no light in them.

“Kraglin c’mon...”

He tried to rub some life into the hand, his thumb running over the white-knuckles of the hand that was so cold in contrast to the fever in the rest of his body.

No response.

Yondu bit his lower lip almost hard enough to break skin, and he gently tucked the hand back under the sheets before he stood.

“Where. The fuck. Is the doctor?” he demanded, turning to look at the terrified assistant.

“Sir I- I was told to...”

Yondu stepped toward him, and the young man skittered backward on the floor. He stamped on the hem of his jacket to halt the movement and he leaned down ominously.

“Told to _what_.”

“T-tell you that... that there wasn’t... any...” the man swallowed.

“Any _what_?” Yondu flicked back his coat, revealing a red-glowing arrow that was just _waiting_ to be let loose.

“- a-any... any...” another swallow, eyes flicking back to Yondu, then to the arrow, then back to him again. “- Hope.” The man’s arms whipped up to shield his face.

Yondu stared.

“Ain’t any _hope_?” Yondu whispered.

The man nodded, arms still held up.

“Ain’t any _hope!?”_ he snarled.

He whistled, and the Yaka arrow burst to life and hovered just _millimeters_ from the young man’s temple - whose arms dropped in fear, face turning almost as white as Kraglin’s - which was a feat considering he was a Krylorian.

“I decide that. _I decide whether or not it is time to give up on fucking hope_.” Yondu spat. “Where the fuck is he? Where the _fuck_ is he? I want to speak to him _personally_.”

“B-b-...”

“Where. Is. He?”

“D-down w-where the new Ravagers are. H-he said he was gonna check ‘em over...?”

Yondu’s expression crinkled to confusion and anger. “Why is he _there_? I didn’t order him there. He should be _here_.”

He chirped and the arrow flew away from the young Ravager’s head, hovering around Yondu’s as he thought and the young man nearly collapsed to the ground in relief.

“Boy.” Yondu lifted his boot from the jacket him.

“Yessir?” the young man jumped.

“You are gonna stay here an’ you are gunna make sure that Kraglin continues breathin’ and livin’ on, do you got that?”

“But the doctor said that it was pointless t-” the arrow returned to his temple with a trill. “Yes I’ll watch him. I’ll watch him real good. I didn’t personally think it was hopeless anyway. I’ll do my best sir, I promise,” the young man babbled.

Yondu’s eyes narrowed, but more at what had been said by the young man.

“Good. Now go. Do it. Whatever you have’ta. I gotta pay the doc a visit.”

The arrow whizzed back into it’s holster and Yondu stalked out of the med-bay as the young Ravager scrambled to his feet and to Kraglin’s bedside.

 

* * *

 

Rage filled Yondu’s steps as he stalked down to the hold where they held all the potential crew-members. There were only twelve of them - considering the idiot captain of theirs had got the majority of his ‘crew’ killed on the planet before, so they were all nicely crammed into one large cell.

He figured - at the time - it’d give them plenty of time to figure their shit out and realize he was serious about them not doing anything stupid.

No luxuries until they proved they deserved it.

But why in the blue-blazes was the medic down there instead of being up in the med-bay where he was supposed to be?

He was the main doctor, and he was supposed to make sure he did his job until he couldn’t _do it no more_. The bastard used to be a Nova Core trained surgeon for god sake!

Kraglin shouldn’t be like this.

Kraglin should be recovering in bed nicely and not- not-

The image of Kraglin’s near-lifeless expression made Yondu growl louder.

Then something clicked.

Like a latch sliding into place perfectly in his mind.

Suddenly it was all clear.

Yondu wasn’t sure what it was that caused it all to click in the first place. Maybe it was thinking about the injury caused on the planet - or why it had started at all because of that idiot ‘captain’s’ selfish and grandiose ideas of what it meant to be a Ravager.

Or maybe it was because it continued the thought into how in the hell did they know they were there in the first place? Or how they found them _again_...

Or maybe it was remembering that he hadn’t seen a whole lot of the medic with Kraglin anyway...

It was probably _all of the above_ because everything just seamlessly slide into place.

The sudden realization jarred Yondu enough he stopped in his tracks as pieces fell together and painted a very stark picture.

That.

 _Bastard_.

Yondu snarled animalistically and he whistled sharply, his arrow flying out from under the folds of his jacket like it was a thing possessed.

And oh, it a thing possessed it was, because it jerked around the corner where he knew the hold was and where the doctor ought to be.

There was a cry of pain and the sound of metal embedding into metal.

When Yondu turned the corner, he saw the gasping form of the medic clutching the Yaka arrow that was slowly trying to drive itself further into the wall where he was pinned.

He was screaming in pain - still very alive.

It was more than he deserved.

Yondu’s hand slammed into his throat.

“You fucking _bastard_. I should kill you where you stand,” Yondu hissed.

“I-c’p... w’...” the man choked through pain and his own air-passages closing off.

“What is all of this about Kraglin’ being ‘too far gone’ hm? No hope? Infection? Now I know it takes time for infection to settle in, and he doesn’t look like that it just _magically appeared_ , now does it?”

The potential-ravagers that were in the hold were staring in horror and some with curiosity. They were all silent.

“S’r...” the doctor scrabbled at his arm, his face turning paler and paler.

“An’ lemme get this straight... you want me to believe that you did your damnest to save him? I jus’ came to some realizations that I am thinkin’ you _ought to clear up for me_. ‘cause it is makin’ you look like I ought to eviscerate you on the spot.” Yondu leaned in. “An’ I’d do it while you was livin’ too.”

“I-.. pl..”

“I’m _very_ good at keepin’ people livin’ when I want them to. Unlike _some people_.” Yondu let go of his throat, and the man _gasped_ for air, coughing heartily as he tried to suck in breath.

Yondu desperately wanted him to die right then and there, but restrained himself. He had business to attend to - and a lesson to teach to the potential new-recruits.

Don’t fuck with Yondu Udonta.

He eyed the crew in the hold to make his point before he tilted his head to slowly, and ominously, turn back toward the medic.

“You best start explainin’ yourself or these folk are gunna get a show to see what happens to a traitor under this command.”

“N... No! Not! Captain - please, th-this is all a big m-misunderstanding!”

“ _Do_ fill me in,” Yondu said, and he trilled, letting the Yaka arrow spin in place.

The man screamed. “I- Okay ok-okay!” He looked ready to throw-up, if it was possible for his species to even do so.

“Excellent.”

“T-... th-... the infection,” the medic stammered. “We missed it. We must have missed something. It’s... all in his organs. Must have happened,” he gasped, “Must of happened when you were planet side and-”

“ _Lies_ ,” Yondu barked. “You are _lyin’_.”

“Sir- I promise-”

“No. My turn to speak. Lemme ask you somethin’. Tell me, you were in that surgery for four bloody hours and you missed that infection? Or maybe you can explain to me why his stitches burst so damned easily? Lemme ask you how any of that damned possible? Also - lemme ask you this-” his lip curled, tempted to twist the arrow again, “- how did they know we was on that planet?”

The doctor turned whiter. “What? I don’t- I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh I think you do,” Yondu said, teeth showing without any mirth. “I think you know exactly how they knew. I think you also knew exactly what you was doin’ when you decided to tell Kraglin he was okay to leave the med-bay.”

“Sir- I-”

“No shut up. I should’a realized that Kraglin should have been told by the _doctor_ to stay in bed. He ain’t stupid enough to disobey doctor’s orders, now is he? I didn’t pick him for first-mate ‘cause he was _stupid_ , now did I?”

“N-no sir I-”

“Shut it. So the only reason he thought he was well enough to git outta bed was ‘cause he was told he was.”

“H-he was making a remarkable-”

“Bullshit,” Yondu spat. “He wasn’t. You know it. When I carried him back in there he had a blazin’ fever, that doesn’t just crop up _magically_.”

“He had been under stress an-”

“ _I have had enough of your goddamned_ _ **bullshit**_ **,** ” Yondu yelled, and he grabbed the arrow and _yanked_ it from the man’s shoulder.

The medic screamed again and when he hit the floor, Yondu flipped him over with his boot and ground his heel into him.

“I am done with this talk. You told that other captain where we were, didn’t you? You told him where we were in space, didn’t you? I bet you saw Kraglin gettin’ hurt as an easy way to disturb the hierarchy of this ship... _didn’t you_.”

He just got gurgles of pain in response, but he continued. “I understand now - you saw he was hurt, so you figure you make like you fix him, but let him get worse so he’d die - an’ you’d do it to distract me, hm? So that your _friend_ who wanted to be a Ravager oh-so-bad would get in a good few licks on’ us. Try to give ‘im an upper hand...”

“N-no...”

“Yes!” A man who pushed his way through to the front of the other men in the hold called out, gripping the bars, “Yes! The captain had a contact inside of the Eclector! We didn’t know who it was, but all he said was that he had everything covered ‘on the inside’.”

Yondu looked up at him, he was a older-looking man with greenish skin and spectacles. He almost looked like a friendly bearded-man that would be suited for damned greeting cards. Not quite what one would imagine a Ravager to look like.

“An’ who might you be?”

“Doq.”

“Righ’ What else do you know?”

“We - we knew that one of you was hurt,” the older man continued. “Said that someone inside was taking care of it. Was someone high-ranking. We didn’t know if it was you, or a bridge-crew member or-”

“The first mate.”

“Yeah. But we were told that he was being taken out.”

Yondu snarled.

“This true?” He looked down at the doctor.

The doctor shook his head.

Yondu ground his heel directly into the wound.

That broke him. The medic started to sob. “Yes. _Yes_ \- It’s all true!” he nearly shrieked.

“All of it!? Is there any more of you!?” He ground out his heel again.

“No! N-no! Ju-just me!”

He ground his heel again, and the man just sobbed in horrific pain. “Just me! Nobody else! P-please! Just kill me!”

For the first time - Yondu believed him.

“Gladly.”

A trill.

The doctor jerked.

Then was still.

Yondu lifted his boot in disgust, and he caught the arrow before turning to Doq who was still looking at him in the cell.

“Anybody else your captain was in contact wit’?”

“No sir. Nobody else that we know of.”

Yondu was still angry beyond all hope. “Any of you in there doctors?”

“There’s a reason why I’m called Doq,” the man replied.

Ah. Explained his more well-kept appearance.

“No shit, huh? Do you know yer way around Xandarian biology?”

“I should. I’m half.”

Yondu unlocked the hold, and slid the door open. “Then pick it the fuck up - I ain’t got all day, and we have a dying first-mate.”

“Yessir!”

“Oh - and Doq?”

“Yessir?”

“If you fuck this up - or if you was lyin - or anything like that? You will wish I do to you what I did to him,” Yondu nodded at the dead man on the floor. “Is that clear?”

The new doctor level a stare with him. “... Perfectly.”

“Good. Now _move_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't _fuck_ with Yondu and his crew. Especially don't go anywhere near Kraglin or Peter - and _especially_ don't think of being a traitorous bastard.
> 
> Finally Kraglin will get the help he bloody-well needs.
> 
> ... Hopefully it's not too late though...
> 
> THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE AWESOME COMMENTS <3


	7. Transfused Blood

The medical bay was a frenzy unlike any other when he and Doq rushed into it; despite the fact it was only the one lonely Krylorian medical assistant - not yet fully trained, and spooked out of his mind.

The young man was doing violent chest-compressions on a lifeless Kraglin when the two came into the medical bay.

“Come - _On -_ ” he was panting. “- Heart - _Beat_.”

Yondu froze on the spot - white noise filling his mind.

... no ...

“Don’t -” the young ravager ground out, trying his best as Doq rushed past Yondu and toward the younger, “- Die - On - Me.”

 _No_.

Yondu felt his knees go weak.

The monitor attached to Kraglin screamed a single-pitch straight line.

No. _No._ _ **No!**_

Yondu hadn’t realized he was gripping the entrance way in an attempt to steady himself. His mind, attention and all focus was _locked_ onto Kraglin. He almost wanted to pass out.

The other two men moved around Kraglin in a foggy haze for all that Yondu noticed them.

Yondu would have stayed entranced in horror if it weren’t for the sharp voice of the older doctor cutting through his mind, “Sir!”

Yondu blinked, shaking his head, “... Wh-what?”

“I need you. _Now_.”

Yondu was too dazed to argue the ordering tone, but he moved quickly, crossing the floor in a few short strides.

It took a moment to realize that they were no longer doing chest-compressions; and even longer to notice that the monitor wasn’t showing a flat-line, but a heartbeat instead. It was weak and thready, but it was _there_.

“ _Kraglin_...” Yondu didn’t care who saw, he reached out and pushed back some of the matted dark hair in a display of gentleness that no-one would ever believe of him. “Goddamn it Krags...”

Kraglin didn’t deserve _any_ of this.

“Captain,” the older man approached him. “Take off your shirt. Sit down.” A chair was being shoved toward him.

Yondu sat, bewildered. “What? Why? Ain’t nothing wrong with _me_.”

“I know that, but we need to act fast.”

“What’s happenin? What happened? Why did his heart stop like that?” Yondu demanded as he peeled off his shirt and threw it to the floor without a care.

“I haven’t been here long enough to know that -” the older man looked to the medical assistant.

Who answered, voice trembling, “I’ve been tryin’ to clear out the infection, but the synthetic blood can only do so much - it just ain’t the same as the real-deal. When I was tryin’ to cool him down... he just... flat-lined.” The assistant rang his hands worriedly, like Yondu was going to flay him for answering badly. “I’ve been trying my damndest - but I don’t know why it’s so bad and-”

Yondu waved him off. “Ain’t your fault. The doc never treated him fer it before.”

“... What?”

Yondu snarled, ignoring the feeling of the other man dabbing the inside of his elbow with some strange-smelling substance. “He did this on purpose - that’s what. He never treated Kraglin for nothin’ just did a poor patch-job and waited for the infection to do th’ rest I gather...”

He felt a sharp jab - _now_ he was paying attention.

He nearly yanked his arm away with a whistle. But it was held down by the wrist.

“You sonofabitch what the _fuck_ are you doin!?” Yondu snarled, baring teeth.

“He needs clean blood. Now,” the half-Xandarian doctor stated, “You’re Centaurian, are you not?”

Yondu narrowed his eyes, “Yeah.”

“Xandarian blood is not only basic enough to be transferable to most other species, but _your_ blood has the added bonus of being transferable to _him_.”

“I know. I’ve done it before.” Only just a week ago.

“You also have the added bonus of having blood that is a pretty natural antibiotic. It’s not a cure - but it’s going to help.”

Hell. He didn’t know that. He just figured because both of their blood was blue that they were compatible.

Yondu’s eyes fell onto Kraglin and his ghostly-white face - and all his doubts and suspicious melted away as fast as snow on flesh.

“Jus’...” Yondu resigned, reaching with one hand to take up Kraglin’s cold one. “- Just do what you need to do.”

“I am.”

 

* * *

 

Yondu woke up without knowing he had fallen asleep.

He had been exhausted and sleep-deprived, and stressed beyond all hope, but he had been resolute, he had refused the lull of sleep while Kraglin’s life hanged so delicately in the balance.

It had been hours - and Yondu had to give temporary command of the vessel to Horuz he had been so enwrapped in it all.

He couldn’t risk leaving Kraglin’s side again.

But he must have fell asleep - or passed out - at some point, because he awoke with a violent jerk, and a crick in his back.

“Ow - fuckin’ damnit,” Yondu tried to reach for the smarting vertebrae, but the sting at the crook of his arm reminded of where he was and _what_ he was doing.

He breathed, looking down at his arm, and saw a pile of gauze pressed into the inside of his elbow and taped in place.

Yondu looked up to the bed he had fallen asleep by and -

\- it was empty.

Yondu stood, nearly regretting it because he got a rush of blood to his head that sent stars and lights flickering across his vision.

“Kraglin!”

Footsteps, and Doq came into view from behind closed curtains that Yondu hadn’t noticed before.

“He’s fine!” the man immediately assured, hands up. “He’s fine. We’re just addressing the poor suturing from before. _He’s fine.”_

Yondu evened his harried breathing - and cleared his throat. “... I... oh?”

He sat down heavily in the chair once more. Celestials have mercy he was _tired_.

Doq looked at him for a moment _,_ before disappearing and coming back a few seconds later with a bottle in his hand.

“I found this while rummaging through your previous doctor’s things. I guessed that you wouldn’t care if I stole from a dead man.” He proffered the bottle.

Yondu took it, and glanced at the bottle of heavy spirits. He uncorked it and took a few grateful swigs.

“Thanks.”

He took a few more swigs of the stuff - it was bitter and acrid - but it was enough to stave off the oncoming headache burgeoning at his temples.

Yondu evened his breathing as Doq dissipated behind the curtains again.

Yondu wasn’t left alone long though, because the curtains were drawn back, revealing a newly bandaged Kraglin being carefully covered in a sheet.

Yondu hesitated in his approach.

“You can come over now - he will be waking up in just a moment or two,” the older man said, nodding to the assistant to fetch Yondu the chair.

Yondu sat down into it when it was offered, and just looked at Kraglin.

He somehow looked both worse and better. _Worse_ because he was more bandaged than before, Yondu could see through the thread-bare white sheets and the bandages covered every inch of Kraglin’s abdomen. _Better_ because the breathing was even, the dark-circles were nearly gone, and there was even a pinkish hue to the man’s cheeks where it there had been naught before.

“He’ll be waking up soon, I didn’t give him enough to keep him under for long,” Yondu heard Doq say. “With a lot of bed-rest, he should pull through. He’s damned lucky.”

Yondu just barely nodded, and just watched Kraglin breathe, marveling in the simple sight of that.

He reached out again, setting aside the liquor, and went out for the man’s hand again.

It was warm.

Not an unhealthy warm, but a warm that stretched across the palm and to each of his fingertips.

It was only then that Yondu really believed what the other man was saying.

Kraglin was going to be alright.

Yondu let loose the loudest sigh of relief and pressed his forehead into the mattress for a moment to chuckle - caught in the moment of exhausted relief.

“For fuckin’ sake, Kraglin - you know how to put someone through the ringer. I should space you for tha’”

He froze when he felt the warm hand he was still gently holding squeeze his own.

“Aw... after... all th’ trouble... you went... through...?”

Yondu’s head shot up, and he caught the dopy expression of his first-mate. Tired - but pain free.

“H’llo,” Kraglin offered stupidly.

“You _sonnofabitch!_ ”

Kraglin chuckled. “Glad to see you awake too, cap’n.”

Yondu blinked, he balked. “Me!? You are the one that was sleepin’ you idjit!”

“I was awake before - but you was asleep already...”

Doq was chuckling from behind him, and Yondu sent him a sour look. “An’ you neglected to tell me this... why?”

The older man’s hands went up in self-defense. “He did wake up. You were asleep for quite some time, captain. Kraglin warned me not to wake you - he advised it might not be the best for my safety if I did so...”

That was fair. Yondu was known to whistle in his sleep when under stress and disturbed... Or stab. Or both.

Yondu looked back at Kraglin. “Are you okay?”

Kraglin shifted, wincing. “As best as I’ll ever be righ’ now. I dunno how he did it, but he’s a miracle-worker,” he nodded to the half-Xandarian Doq. “ _I_ didn’ even think I was gunna make it. Now I feel better than I did before.”

“What did you _do?”_ Yondu half-asked, half-demanded of the doctor.

“A lot of things that you’d need a medical-science degree to understand, Captain. But, basically, I flushed his system of infected blood and systematically cleaned and mixed it with yours before feeding it back into him.”

Yondu blinked - half comprehending; he had a feeling it was a _lot_ more complicated than the doctor was making it sound. “But - the other - that _traitor_ mentioned it bein’ all in his organs -”

“It was. Look, your medical bay is more equipped than you think. I managed to halt and reverse a lot of the damage.”

Yondu snapped, pointing at the in-training assistant, “Then _why_ didn’t he-”

“He wasn’t equipped with the knowledge to know that he could even do such a thing.”

Yondu’s anger wilted as soon as it sprang up. It was replaced by a bone-tired weariness, and he let his free hand flop beside him again before rubbing the back of his head.

“So the medic could’a this whole time...”

Yondu squeezed Kraglin’s hand as a sickening realization hit him.

Damn.

He _knew_ already that the man was a traitor, but to know that even when Kraglin was at his worst - that the man _still_ had it in his means to save him and he _chose not to -_

“I’m fine, sir,” Kraglin said. “Well, I will be.”

Yondu nodded, lips tightening.

Silence fell.

“... Captain - if I may... I could leave you two alone? I know that you don’t trust me as-of-yet and-”

“Jus’ go,” Yondu dismissed. “I dun care where. Jus’ go. I trust ya. Fer now,” he added, trying to not sound too soft on the man.

“Yessir.”

The doctor looked to the younger assistant, and gestured to the door. The younger got the drift and looked more than happy to escape the medical bay with the older man.

Captain and first-mate were left alone.

Yondu didn’t want to say anything for the first while, just silently feeling the warmth of the other man’s hand in his own. He knew it was odd, he knew that he should have yanked his hand away ages ago, but he had to keep the other’s hand in his own.

It almost felt like Kraglin was going to evaporate if he put it back down.

“I promise I’ll be okay, cap’n,” Kraglin offered, breaking that silence.

“I know.”

“Stop worryin’”

“I ain’t worryin’!” Yondu snapped, glaring at the man. “Well... jus’ a little.”

Kraglin chuckled again, but amidst that, he also looked mildly confused.

“What?”

“Why are you so worried?” his first-mate eventually asked, like he wasn’t the one laying in a medical bed with bandages coating three-quarteres of his torso.

Yondu was flabbergasted. “Why am I- Why am I-!? You idjit! O’ course I’m _worried_ about your sorry ass!”

“I know but-”

“You idjit! You mother-fucking _bonehead_. I wouldn’ be sittin’ here holding your damned hand if I wasn’t worried about you for a good reason!”

“But _why_?” Kraglin swallowed, eyes searching him, uncertain. “I am awful grateful - I am - but I... Yer the captain. You never get all -” he nodded to their hands, “- about anybody.”

“Well you ain’t jus’ anybody,” Yound ground out before he could stop himself.

He looked away, feeling heat flaring across his chest, shoulders and cheeks.

“Look.” Yondu growled. “I can’t pretend I ain’t worried for ya. ‘cause I am. We established that. But you also can’t just ignore th’ fact we ain’t that _normal_ around each other, now can we?”

“Ain’t normal?”

“Yeah! You think I’d go and hold anybody’s hand? You think I’d let anybody stay around the little brat? You think that I’d let _anybody_ be my second-in-command, or let Peter call you-” he cut himself off.

Back up Yondu, back up. Too much at once. Emotions were running high, no time to run his mouth.

Kraglin’s eyes narrowed. “... Call me what?”

“Nothin.”

“It ain’t nothing.”

“Nothing!”

“I know you told him to call me somethin’ I recognize it as ‘my name’ but I figured it was a word or something.”

“It’s not important!”

“Clearly it is!”

Yondu glared at him.

Kraglin glared back.

Stupid stubborn Xandarian. Stupid stubborn Xandarian getting better so fast that he has the stupid stubborn energy to be a stupid stubborn idiot.

“It means ‘parent’.” Yondu relented.

“... What?”

“It means _parent_. Well. Sorta. I wasn’t about to have ya called ‘mom’, now was I? You’re as male as I am - and you certainly didn’t birth the boy. An’ Centaurians have all sorts of words for their parents so I picked one of them that sort of sounds like yer name and...”

Kraglin looked a little misty. “... _Cap’n,”_ he croaked.

“Don’t _do_ that!” Yondu growled. “Stop wit’ that face!”

He noticed how he never once yanked his hand away from Kraglin’s. Their fingers were still tightly interlaced.

Kraglin swallowed, in an attempt to control his emotions, likely, “Sorry but - but I know you never admit it. Peter is - Peter is as good as your son an’ an’... you sayin’ you get him to call _me-”_

“Shut up. I’m done talkin.” Yondu muttered, “I ain’t good with feelings.”

Kraglin swallowed, clearly trying to contain his composure. “I- I say you’re doin’ okay.”

Yondu chuckled a little, tired. “I guess. If you think so.”

Kraglin continued, probably unaware that his thumb was rubbing the back of Yondu’s hand. “I don’t like the traditional anyhow. I like this - s’more natural.”

Yondu rolled his eyes. “You’re a romantic.”

Kraglin shrugged.

Another silence fell between them, but it was more comfortable, and the air was buzzing with a lot of unknowns and obvious feelings.

“Kraglin...”

“Yessir?”

“... You know I ain’t the best kind of people -”

“I don’t think so, cap’n.”

“- Shut up. S’not what I’m tryin’ to say.” Yondu straightened. “What I am _tryin’_ to say is that - I ain’t the best kinda person around, you know? I ain’t good with feelins’, or _emotions_. I steal stuff, I fuck around, I kill people. I don’t do good with talkin’ and I sometimes ignore what’s important.”

Kraglin thankfully remained silent, but looked very close to protesting against what was said.

“I just mean - I ain’t the best there is out there. I can’t even begin to understand what it is I’m feeling righ’ now. I jus’... don’t want to risk throwing it out before I understand it.”

Kraglin nodded. “I can get that.”

Yondu closed his eyes, and took a breath, stealing himself. “So, if yer willin’ to bear with me - and figure this shit out -”

He chanced a glance at his first-mate.

Whose smile was so bright that it could warm every crevice in Yondu’s cold, dead, heart just by a mere glance of it.

Yondu swallowed again, continuing, “- then I’d like to _try_ to figure out what the hell is goin’ on between the two o’ us.” Yondu gestured with his free hand the space between them. “’cause it ain’t just normal captain and first-mate shit.”

“No sir.”

“Whaddya say?”

Kraglin looked between laughing and crying. “Willin’ to give it a go.”

“Good.” Yondu huffed, trying to play off the rise of giddiness in his chest. “Now, if you will shut up for a second - I’d like to try somethin... Jus’ this once. If you’re willin’...”

“... Go ahead...”

 

* * *

 

Ravagers weren’t known for being soft.

They were rough in everything they did.

They hardened their hearts. They hardened their feelings, their emotions, their souls.

So the kiss that Yondu Udonta pressed to the surface of his first-mate’s lips should have been completely impossible; so soft he was in it’s execution.

It was the epitome of gentleness, it didn’t hunger for deepening, nor bite or tear or claim.

It was soft and warm, and spoke the thousands of things that Yondu couldn’t find the words for.

It was everything that a Ravager like him shouldn’t be able to do.

Doq turned around from where he was trying to re-enter the medical bay to ask a question.

It could wait till later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yondu is feeling FEELINGS - and is finally addressing said FEELINGS.
> 
> One more chapter to go, and that's the end of this story!
> 
> More stories to follow in this AU - I promise <3
> 
> Thanks so much!


	8. Blood of the Heart

“Sir! Look out!” Kraglin called.

Yondu didn’t even manage to make out a whistle before it was already all over.

There had only been the sound of a body hitting the ground like an instant dead weight.

Yondu whirled around, almost expecting to see Kraglin hurt - it was an invasive thought that had plagued him for the past few days now that Kraglin was back on active duty - but came to the image of Kraglin standing with his boot grinding into the throat of a would-be attacker.

Deep viscus gold blood poured from the man’s nose and mouth - effectively choking with along with his collapsed windpipe, and the knife in his hand that had been poised to strike fell limply into the surrounding leaves.

Another hefty stomp, and the light went out of the man’s eyes.

“He was gunna stab you,” was all that Kraglin said when he lifted his boot, and he kicked the Sovereign mercenary over to be _sure_ he was dead. “Bet that knife was poisoned.”

Yondu stared at Kraglin.

Oh god he forgot why he had gotten interested in this asshole in the first-place. Not that he’d ever admitted it to himself _then_ , but he was certainly aware of it _now_.

Kraglin looked up from where he was scraping the glitter-like blood off of his heel. “What?”

“How in the blue-blazes did’ja lay him out that fast!?”

“... You forget my past already cap’n?” Kraglin chuckled with some amusement, kneeling down to rifle in the dead-man’s pockets.

“No. I jus-”

“I told you I was fine, didn’t I? I’ve been one-hundred percent fine for over a week now, haven’t I?” Kraglin said as he pulled out various small knifes and even a gun or two from the recesses of the dead man’s jacket.

“Yes. I know that,” Yondu grumbled. “I jus’ wasn’t sure if-”

Kraglin just looked at him with raised eyebrows instead of saying anything.

Yondu sighed, and relented, “- Righ’ I know, you can handle yerself,” he said, “But look - I had’ta watch them try to bring life back to your skinny corpse so excuse me fer thinkin’ it’d take longer for you to get back to normal!”

Kraglin just shook his head, pocketing what he could find on the man, and he tossed the knife over to Yondu - who caught it.

It was an embellished gold disaster of a knife, and might fetch a pretty credit or two on the market - but was pretty damn useless. Sharp though. Definitely poisoned too.

“Why d’ya think a Sovereign was tryin’ to stab you, captain?” Kraglin asked once he eventually stood, giving the body a good kick for measure.

“Eh - probably ‘cause I got someone to look at those guns those ships had. Remember, the ones that attacked us?”

“I remember.”

“Turns out they are some Sovereign gravity weapons - but like, real prototype shit, like the kind scientists usually ditch ‘cause they are too unreliable. Good thing we stripped them ships, apparently they are mighty explosive.”

“Right.”

“So I figure the guy tipped somebody off, or this shithead thought we was against their empire and thought he was doin’ a favour.”

“Right.”

“Eh - don’t think to hard on it. I sent them guns back to their home world anonymously. Nobody wants to get on the wrong side of the Sovereign.”

“Dangerous?” Kraglin asked, lips quirking upwards.

“Hell no,” Yondu said, guiding Kraglin forward to continue their walking with a hand over his shoulders. “They are as hard to get off of yer back as shit once they’re on ya.”

Kraglin’s laugh filled the air.

 

* * *

 

“ _Yondu! Kraglin_!” Peter chirped when the two men boarded back onto the ship and began unloading their merchandise - either obtained legally or not - as the small Terran ran toward them.

“Heya squirt,” Kraglin greeted first, and Peter skid to a halt before him.

“What chu’ doin down here?” Yondu said, kneeling down to Peter’s level.

“You were on a mission,” Peter said, hands behind his back. “So I got someone to bring me here. I waited for you!”

Kraglin kicked one of the bags to the far wall for later. “An’ why didja want to wait fer us?”

“You were on a mission,” Peter repeated, fidgeting.

The kid was only four, and thus was completely transparent about the anxiety he was plainly feeling.

“Uh huh, and so what?” Yondu asked, dropping a bag that he had slung over his shoulder onto the floor. “We go on those all th’ time.”

“Not Kraglin!” Peter pointed, his ‘l’ sounding more like a ‘w’ when speaking the man’s name traditionally. “Not lately!”

“So...?” Yondu tilted his head.

Peter pouted, he worked the tip of his shoe into the floor.

Why in the hell would the kid care if -

Oh.

Right.

Peter had been there.

Silence fell between the two men, and Kraglin knelt down.

“C’mere,” Kraglin held out his arms.

Peter gladly ran into them, and Kraglin hoisted him up with ease.

“I’m fine, kiddo.”

Peter, still pouting, rest his head on Kraglin’s shoulder. “Yeah, but last time-”

“Las’ time we were jus’ unlucky,” Yondu stood up. “Las’ time it was just an accident.”

“- But _still,”_ Peter protested. “It was scary.”

“Aw, I know, but a lot of stuff we do is awful scary, Pete,” Kraglin said, balancing the small boy - Peter was oh-so-small - on his side, and he mussed his hair. “S’what a Ravager is about.”

“I know,” the boy pouted. “But- I was worried and -”

“Well don’t worry about him no more, you little gnat, he just kicked some assassin’s ass six-ways to Sunday just a short while ago.”

Kraglin rubbed a hand over his face. “It weren’t an assassin.”

“Sure it was.”

“That’s exaggeratin’ for Peter’s sake.”

“No it ain’t -” it was, “- Th’ assassin, tried to kill me,” Yondu continued to tell Peter, with the tone of someone telling a grand story. “An’ Kraglin got him first.” He snapped his fingers. “Like _that_.”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“Sure it was! Brat, if you ever have any trouble at all, jus’ tell Kraglin - he can move like a Krylorian Coral Raptor when he wants to.”

Peter’s eyes were wide with awe. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Now, cut it out, this is gettin’ ridiculous, cap’n.” Kraglin protested, adjusting Peter on his hip. “He’s gunna get grandiose ideas ‘bout me.”

“Not grandiose if they’re true.”

“Cap’n.”

Yondu just grinned his shit-eating grin - ignoring his first-mate - and ruffled Peter’s hair messily. “So, in short, you don’t gotta worry, Kiddo. S’other people you gotta worry about.”

Peter trilled happily.

“... ugh.” Kraglin looked like he wanted to bang his head against something.

It was Yondu’s turn for his laugh to fill the air.

 

* * *

 

All in all, the past month had been wildly boring compared to how it had all started.

It was hard to believe that most of that excitement had happened within just a week, and even more hard to believe that a majority of _that_ was in the span of a single day.

But it had ended with Kraglin alive and well, and with their crew five members larger.

Doq had decided to stay on the Ravager ship - _despite_ the fact that Yondu learned that the man wasn’t even wanting to be a Ravager in the first place, but had been kidnapped by that rouge faction to forcibly be their medic.

Yondu had no clue what caused the man to want to stay, but he wasn’t about to argue. Doq was an astounding medical doctor, and he wasn’t going to spit at a good opportunity.

If he wanted to stay, then more power to him.

The other members they gained were _both_ the guards that had been with the rogue captain, and two other men who were engineers.

The rest - well, those who hadn’t been killed by Yondu when he found out their connections to the whole ordeal - were dropped off at the closest trade planet.

The Krylorian young medical-assistant had also requested to be left behind.

Normally, Yondu would have taken great offense to be asked if it was ‘okay’ for to jump-ship - usually it ended up in the complete smack-down and humiliation by the whole crew for such an insult - he decided to just let him go.

The young man was not suited to a Ravager’s life, and Yondu was feeling lenient after recalling how damn hard the man tried to keep Kraglin’s heart beating.

Yondu told him to get _real_ medical training, and assume that he might drop by for a favour or two.

The young man was grateful - but thankfully wasn’t profuse about it and left without much of a word.

Maybe he was being too soft - but it felt right to let the young man go find his own path like that.

Yondu didn’t even know he had fallen deep in his own introspection until a voice broke his concentration, “You’re thinkin’ awful hard there, cap’n.”

Yondu blinked, and turned in his seat to see Kraglin watching him with a slightly tilted head.

It was night-shift, and it was the only the two of them left of on the bridge.

“Can’t I think?”

“I didn’t say that, I just mean,” Kraglin gestured, “It looked serious.”

“Jus’ ruminatin’ on the past month, s’all.” Yondu turned back to looking at the main screen, drumming his fingers on the console.

Yondu could hear Kraglin get up out of his own seat, and stride over toward him. Kraglin’s head appeared close to his own, as his arms folded over the back of Yondu’s chair.

“Still? I thought that was behind us now?”

“Yeah. Still.”

“I’m fine, cap’n.”

“I know that. Don’t I look like I know that?”

“Of course.”

Yondu rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t thinkin’ about that anyhow. Jus’ everything else. The new crew, the rogue faction, everythin’,” Yondu made a vague gesture with his hand.

“Mmm hmm,” Kraglin hummed.

After a moment of drumming his fingers on his console, Yondu spoke. “You don’t think I’m gettin’ soft, do you?”

“What? Of course not.”

“Really?” Yondu asked, rubbing his stubbly chin. “You sure about that?”

“I’m sure. Jus’ the other day you beat the shit outta a guy for lookin’ at you funny.”

Yondu smiled, “I did do that, didn’t I? That was hilarious.”

“An’ don’t forget the day before that when that trader tried to get you a raw deal...” Kraglin trailed.

Yondu barked a laugh. “I forgot about that! Well. He ain’t gunna be giving raw deals anymore -”

“- Not if he likes the two hands he got left,” Kraglin finished.

Yondu grinned for a moment.

Eventually, Kraglin said, his tone light, “An’ I don’t know if it matters to you what I think - but I don’t think yer soft. Jus’ ‘cause you make decisions that are the right ones... doesn’t mean you’re soft.”

Yondu breathed out and turned his head to better-look at his first mate.

“You sure about that?”

“I’m sure, cap’n. As sure as my blood is blue.”

“What about Peter?”

“That ain’t soft. That’s jus’ doin’ somethin’ right.”

“An’ what about lettin’ that Krylorian kid go?”

“A good decision. We could bank up a favour,” Kraglin reasonably replied. “Who knows when one day we’ll need an in to a hopsital.”

“.... An’ you?”

Yondu noticed that one of Kraglin’s hands was on the console, so he gently drummed his fingertips on the white flesh.

Kraglin paused, “Tha’ depends on what you think, sir...” he eventually replied. Yondu noticed the anxious swallow.

They hadn’t exactly ignored what had happened in the med-bay, but they hadn’t exactly _addressed_ it much either.

Either Kraglin was recovering, or Yondu had shit to do, or they were both emotionally constipated idiots who rather dance around an issue rather than talking about it like adults.

Yondu pondered, then he grinned, showing all of his teeth. His hand tucked under Kraglin’s so their fingers laced together.

“Hell. You ain’t soft, so this ain’t soft either,” he gently gripped the man’s chin with his hand.

Their lips pressed together for the second time.

Kraglin looked a little breathless when they came apart and Yondu laughed to cover his own giddiness.

“I’m done worryin’ if shit is soft or not. All that matters is we have the fuckin’ time of our lives and carve ourselves a line through the galaxy as we do it.”

“Amen to that, cap’n.”

Their hands remained linked together.

Blue in white.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is - the end!
> 
> Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments that I have received and thanks so much for following this fic!
> 
> I had had so much fun writing this - YOU HAVE NO IDEA - so thank you for enjoying the journey with me!
> 
> More to come in this AU. Things like Peter's origins, and maybe even the origin of how Kraglin became a member of Yondu's crew in the first place...
> 
> Thanks again~


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